September 2, 2008 at 1:42 am

Last April it was dark and early and my bed was shaking. Alas, I was not having mind-blowing sex. I was lying in bed alone at 5:36am which is a time that I am almost never awake unless my cat is very hungry and I have forgotten to shut the bedroom door. As the movement shook my brain awake, I realized what was happening.

I was in an earthquake! In Indiana! Finally!

I have always wanted to be in an earthquake, just to know what it feels like. I know people sometimes die in earthquakes, so I didn’t want to be in one of those earthquakes, just a safe little earthquake where the ground moved and the plates rattled and perhaps a picture fell off of the wall. I don’t live in California though, and I don’t have any plans to move to a major fault line, so the possibility seemed slim. But here I was, at 5:36am, experiencing my first earthquake and it was awesome. I couldn’t wait to blog about it.

Then I realized, wait, no, I can’t blog about my first Indiana earthquake because I run a weight-loss blog and even as clever as I like to think I am, I couldn’t think of a way to reasonably connect my earthshaking experience to health or fitness. Maybe the shaking burned calories? Um, no.

That’s when I decided – I’m going blog about more than just weight loss. So, instead of just blogging about fitness, health and the size of my ass, I’m now going to blog about fitness, health, the size of my ass, and whatever else I feel like talking about if it’s funny, informative or worthwhile in any way. Let me repeat that and put it in bold for those of you freaking out about my booty – I will still blog about fitness, health, and the size of my ass. I’m going to expand the scope of the blog to my entire life, and those topics are definitely a part of my life. I’ve actually started doing this already, blogging about a gay pride parade and a blogging conference to see if anyone would notice. No one gave me any flack over it, and they rather seemed to enjoy my parade shenanigans. Now that I’ve dipped my toes in, I’m ready to take the full plunge.

To reflect the change, my blog bought new shoes, put on its prettiest dress and got its hair done. I’ve redesigned the look of the site, though I kept the same colors and fonts. (I wanted to give it a makeover, not enlist it in the witness protection program.) All the same information is here, just better designed and more beautifully presented (hopefully). I’ve tested it as best as I can, but if you find any bugs, email me at with your operating system, browser and a description of the problem. If you know how to take a screenshot, that would be helpful too.

I’ve also changed the name from “Half of Me” to “PastaQueen” which should be easier to remember since that is the actual domain name of this site. I toyed with calling it “PastaQueen Plus,” but that sounded like I was going to start shopping in the women’s department again. If you link to my site, I’d be very grateful if you updated the name of your links so they say “PastaQueen” and so they link to http://www.pastaqueen.com

Why this is a good thing

Again, hopefully no one is freaking out. This is a good thing, ok? My blog helped me figure out a lot of my weight issues and was a vital tool in self-discovery. One of the things I love about blogging is that it helps me figure myself out. I heard a great quote once, “How will I know what I think if I can’t read what I write?” Sometimes I don’t really understand what I think about an issue until I’ve written about it. This was very helpful to me as I was losing weight.

However, I’ve noticed that there are other areas of my life that would equally benefit from some self-analysis and probing. But I haven’t written about them because I only write about health issues here. In that way, blogging only about weight loss has been limiting me from thinking through other topics that I’d like to figure out.

I thought about starting another blog just for non-weight stuff. I designed a template, bought a domain name and posted some entries. Then I nearly collapsed on my keyboard because I could not keep up. There are only so many things I can accomplish in a day, and at this time writing two separate blogs is not one of them. It also felt odd to segment my life unnaturally. Weight and fitness are a part of my life like anything else, and it seemed weird to be splitting myself in two like that.

I’ve always seen this site as a personal blog disguised as a weight-loss blog. When I’ve told people at conferences that I write a “weight-loss blog,” they seem uninterested because they think I only talk about how many Weight Watchers points are in a Snickers bar. When in reality, I think they’d like reading my blog. By opening up the floor to other topics, hopefully more people will feel welcome hanging out here and we can all meet new and interesting people who otherwise wouldn’t check this place out.

Beyond all that, I don’t want my weight to be the most defining characteristic of my life. That’s one of the reasons why I lost weight. I did a TV interview a couple months ago and in the green room another guest asked me, “Do you count calories?” I remember staring at her perfectly made-up face and thinking, “Wow, out of all the questions in the world that you could ask, that’s the one you’re asking? Seriously? Who the hell cares if I count calories?” And then I told her no, I don’t, but I probably eat about 1800 a day, and then I got started on that with a cinnamon roll. I’m very proud of all that I have accomplished, but I don’t want to be waving my fat pants around 20 years from now and saying it’s the only thing I’ve accomplished. It is time to evolve.

Of course evolution is change, and change is scary and unknown, even if it is for the better. I’ve built up a great community around this blog and I’d hate to have that evaporate. But, I also know I can’t keep on doing the same old shtick out of fear that I will become less popular or that I may lose readers. I’m not going to pretend that my weight loss didn’t happen. I’m not going to bury it or stop talking about it. I’m just going to talk about other stuff too. So, bear with me as I figure this out. I don’t know exactly what the mix will be. I’m just going to feel my way. Hopefully you’ll feel it out with me, and you’ll find it an entertaining and worthy read.

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74 Comments

I like the new site, except that the ad was for dark chocolate M&Ms which I have to say I love but should not be eating at 2:00am. (“or ever” is debatable because there is no way I would have them only in moderation, but anyway…)

It all looks lovely and I’m impressed by your web development skills :-). The email notifications I will not miss because while I always clicked the box, I never got one email even though my comments were replied to several times (okay, once I got an email saying you had responded but it was five days after the fact).

Congratulations on the redesign and thanks again for the free ice cream, I just used it to get some Klondike bars today!

I love the look of the new site. I am kind of new here, I started coming after I bought your book a couple of weeks ago. I am very inspired by your accomplishments. I too need to lose 200 pounds, and I have only lost 7 so far, but I guess that is a start. Thanks for sharing your story, and I think incorporating more about your life will keep things interesting.

Really like the new look and I am DELIGHTED to hear you are going to blog about whatever takes your fancy/falls out of your head. I came to your blog late in the day (ie you were already half of you) and it was your writing that made me come back again. I look forward to profound more insights (!)

I LOVE that you’re going to blog about everything else in your life. You’re a great writer and I love your view on things. In fact, the focus on weight and fitness, while always interesting, was beginning to get monotonous for me. Meaning, I wouldn’t read your blog first, although you’re one of my favorite writers. I’m very excited for this change!

About the new look, if you’re asking for our honest opinions… I don’t love the new look. Two things: it’s very white, which makes it look kinda plain, and I think the two columns of sidebar overshadow the writing. Part of my hesitation is also due to the fact that I loved the old look. It will take me a while to get used to it. I reeaaally like the light blue sidebar background though :)

I totally get why you’ve redesigned and am delighted really and truly that you’re expanding beyond the weightloss, ‘cos I’m curious and I want to hear what you have to say about all sorts of things.

That said, did you have to pick today? am tired and stressed and thought I’d stop by for a relaxing and amusing 2-minute read, and instead I’m faced with new navigation and all sorts. phew! congrats anyway! did you ever think about freelance web development? or pro-bono for the great causes out there?

Way to go! It’s great that you’re putting yourself out there, the real you and not just the part of your personality that’s concerned with weight loss. You sounded a little defensive about it but you don’t need to be – it is your blog after all, and people read it because you’re witty and sort of charming, not just because you lost the weight.

Time to re-invent ! Although I started reading because of our shared weight loss journey, I for one would enjoy hearing from all sides of you. Good luck and I’m happy to see the change and grow with you (no pun intended!).

I don’t want to be waving my fat pants around 20 years from now and saying it’s the only thing I’ve accomplished. It is time to evolve.

It’s refreshing to hear that you have a well rounded life, complete with ambitions, goals… all that jazz.

BTW, I’m almost finished with your book. When I read the line “I always thought people who were eating healthy were living a miserable life but unaware of it… kind of like people who use AOL.” I spit my water out I laughed so hard. Ah, geeky humor! :-)

I’m pleased to hear you’ll be blogging about other things. So much of weight loss is tied up in other parts of life that I think much of it is interrelated whether or not it’s readily apparent. (You are a person as a whole, after all, not just a weight loss machine ha ha.) And for things entirely unrelated to weight loss, I still think you have viewpoints I’d like to read, AND I think you’re hysterically funny sometimes, too.

I like it. I honestly get tired of weight loss blogs, sometimes. I start wondering if it is all the person ever talks about, and how old that must get. (That could also be why I tend to fall off the health bandwagon — I just get tired of thinking about it.) So, I’m interested to hear what else goes on in your life!

Wow! This is all very smart. (Although I feel slightly like I’m driving on the wrong side of the road, with the sidebar over to the left… I’ll get used to it!)

I know what you mean about wanting to write about other things. I keep my two journals fairly separate, but that means the readers don’t cross over much (well, except you, maybe). I think that’s a pity.

@K – I mocked up versions of the site with the sidebar on the left and the right. I decided to put it on the left for a couple reasons.

1) Ads in the upper left of a web site get more click-throughs than on the right. If people are going to spend money advertising on my site, I feel like they should get their money’s worth. If I bought an ad on a web site, I wouldn’t want it to get dumped in the gutter.

2) Most users are right handed and have to scroll on the page using the scrollbar on the right. By placing the content on the right everything is closer together and you’ll have to move your hand less to navigate around. This should be a better experience for the user.

3) It’s different. I wanted my blog to stand out. Flipping the traditional sidebar position is one way to do that. It risks confusing the user, as you noted, but I think people will get used to it pretty quickly.

I was disappointed when I didn’t see any entries over the weekend, then this morning it was, “A HA, so THAT’S what’s kept her so busy!” The redesign is very chic, and I love that you have half your ‘now’ face at the top.

“I’m going to expand the scope of my blog to my entire life, and those topics are definitely a part of my life. I’ve actually started doing this already, blogging about a gay pride parade and a blogging conference to see if anybody would notice. No one gave me any flack over it, and they rather seemed to enjoy my parade shananigans. Now that I’ve dipped my toes in, I’m ready to take the full plunge.”

Am I the only idiot who is thinking, “It’s OK, come on out” ?? If so, rest assured that nobody should be freaking out. You will continue to be loved for the great writing, fabulous sense of humor, strong character and sensitivity that are you.

If these are my own twisted thoughts that resulted from working a midnight double shift, then try to get a good laugh out of it and know I’ll never blog again!

Glad the earthquake was not serious. I live in California (San Francisco, to be exact) and always got a kick out of earthquakes UNTIL the Loma Prieta hit. Since then, they are pretty frightening! I can pretty much claim the land speed record for jumping up from wherever I am and running to the “safe spot” in my apartment. ;)

I am guilty of blogging about things other than weight loss on my site, even though losing weight was my primary reason for starting it. But I am more than my weight so it seems only natural that I write about other aspects of my life.

And, I too, think while I write. Helps me clear my head when I can get it on paper, or um, monitor.

I am SO excited that you are turning this into an all-around PQ blog. I loved PQ when it was strictly a weight loss blog, but I have been wanting to get to know you for more than your weight loss for quite some time. YAY!

Don’t worry; you’re good at what you do. Your readership will continue to follow you, I would imagine, and you’ll get even more readers with your expanded range of topics — it’s going to be great, I’m sure.

I said that once to the general manager of the public radio station that I was working for, when he found me writing in my journal one day — “I don’t feel like I’ve completely experienced something until I’ve written about it.” A little different from what you wrote here, but the same idea.

Good luck with your new look. Everyone’ll get used to it and learn to love it as much as they loved the old version.

I understand your dilemma. I started my blog as a humor blog. But occasionally I feel the urge to blog about something that’s not funny. So I felt torn. Stick to the funny stuff (as I see it) or blog about whatever the heck I feel like.

I decided to just jump in and blog about whatever. It’s still mostly funny and it’s definitely not just a run-down of my days. But it works for me. And for the handful of readers who visit.

I go away for a few days and all sorts of new things happen out here in the ‘net.

I don’t think your comment notifications were working anyway. I always clicked it on but never got any e-mails with future comments.

Love the new look. You did a great job with the new layout although I think it may take some time to get used to. I have been reading for so long and did a double-take when I clicked tonight.

I’m looking forward to reading about all the other areas of your life and not just weight-related stuff. I seem to have lost my weight loss focus and have been thinking of changing my blog or giving it up.

I’m very excited! It will be cool to get to know a different side of you. I never came to read just for your insightful weighloss journey but because I liked reading what you had to say, your sense of humor and sarcastic wit crack me up and sometime what you have to say does make me stop and think. So, blog away PastaQueen, I’ll be stopping by as usual!! ~j

I absolutely *love* the newly designed site, and I’m thrilled you’re widening your blogging spectrum. When I first read your blog, I went back and reread EVERY entry you’d made in it. I always hoped you would expand the spectrum, since you are so funny and thoughtful and well spoken- a pleasure to read, all in all.

Knowing one thing always made me wonder “but what about THAT?”… cheers, I approve utterly.

While I love hearing about the weight-loss stuff, I’m happy to to hear more of your other observations! Look forward to it. (I used to live in Tokyo and have been through a bunch of earthquakes. I think my mother still has our hardhats from lo, these many (35+) years ago.

Your voice is what brings your readers back. I came to your site as a skeptic. Weight is a painful issue for me, and I feared it would be a perky, how-to-love-your-cottage-cheese-and-celery-diet type of site. But your voice and your emotional honesty won me immediately. I can’t wait to read your expanding range of topics.

As for the redesign, I love the clean, easy-to-read font, the wonderful header and your new filing system. I would like to make one suggestion: Move the middle “rail” to the right. I find having the main text so far to the right uncomfortable.

Kudos, Pasta Queen, on embarking on this new blogging challenge. I’ll be reading in the full confidence that I’ll enjoy your personal insights and humor on a wide range of topics.

Well I just got here, so as long as you’re not stopping I’ll be happy. Consider me a benefit, I know no better.

I have struggled with this very thing on my own blog… what if I don’t talk about running? What if I want to talk about my dog instead? But it all works out. And sometimes I even talk about the size of my ass, which turn out to be the most popular words of all.

I blog about whatever blows my skirt up that day be it diet, fitness or life. I don’t think anyone expects you to only blog about diet and fitness and if they do…tough luck! The rest of us want to hear about earthquakes in Indiana :-)

It makes perfect sense that you’d make the scope of the blog a bit larger, now that weight loss isn’t the primary achievement you are striving for in your life. I love the new look of the blog, and will definitely update my blogroll to reflect the name change.

It might take me a while to get used to it, but the new site will still be one of my favorite stops on the net. I think it is great that you are moving past just writing about weight loss, modeling for the rest of us that there is life after….

And you are a talented writer so I’m sure your following will only grow from these changes…and your fellow techno-geeks will be thrilled. Your non-techie fans, such as myself, will deal and may even get more informed, despite ourselves.

I know what you mean. I have 3 blogs because I am trying not to confuse (or lose) readers, but I end up shafting the readers, anyway, because it is hard to keep up, as you say.

I actually had you categorized under “humorous” in my reader instead of “weight loss” because I enjoy your sense of humor so much. By the way, that humor actually shows up VISUALLY in this redesign. You should be so proud of it.

Yes, I’ve always been torn whether to keep my weightloss blog seperate from the “regular” blog — but I have two different audiences. My weightloss blog gets hits from people in the fatosphere, but my “regular” really seems to be centered on my hometown and the cultural scene (and my family).

However — i’m also torn because it’s like the weightloss me is this totally different persona than the hometown, music loving me. I’m kind of jealous that you’re at a state where weightloss you has pretty much morphed into you, period, where you whole life isn’t about the weight, and proves something we’ve known all along, you’re much more than your body.

Hoping to get to that state soon, myself. In the meantime, I’m off to update my links to you…. I should probably add you to my “regular” blogroll as well, no? Of course!

Love the new design! Can’t wait to read more. And it would have been NUTS to create a new site. So glad you are just evolving here. It’s better for us all to have you in one spot. YAY YOU!

And girl, I totally relate on the previous picture post. The half marathon pictures of me were DEPRESSING AS HELL. You can actually see flab rolling across my thighs in one of the pictures. Do I really look that slow? And that fat? Ugh. There was one decent photo of me, and the rest just bummed me out. Which is stupid. I ran 13.1 miles, for crying out loud. I shouldn’t be bothered by how I looked, but I was. Sigh. Still got work to do on my fat head thinking.

Love the new digs. ;) I decided recently that I was inspired enough by you and some of the other great bloggers out there to revive my old, barely used site and I’ve been working on it. I had the same dilemma about trying to limit my subject matter, but I decided that if I updated enough, there would hopefully be something to interest anyone that went there, or at least disinterests everyone equally. :) Good luck, and can’t wait to read more.

Congratulations on you new blog layout. I particularly like the logo pasta queen with your flirty eyes behind it, and the crown on top of the Q is so cool.

I’ve been reading your blog for sometime and I enjoy it very much, and I think it’s great that you are going to talk about more things. May I suggest a particular topic? What about your love life? You are a pretty and acomplished girl, and you must have many male fans, don’t you?

Sing hallelujah! I know I only just met you, but I knew the moment I met you that there was more to you than the fact that you lost all that weight. I mean, that’s a big accomplishment and all, but I was, and am, much more interested in YOU than in your weight loss.

I love your writing voice, for one thing.

So I am delighted to visit your blog a second time and learn that you are planning to write about other topics as well.

Oh! But the main reason I came here today is to thank you for linking to my blog (www.IndyTheatreHabit.com) after you wrote about meeting me at the 2008 Blog Indiana conference. ‘Sorry it took me so long to say thanks! I really do appreciate it.

on the whole, it looks great and i love that the content loads before the ads.

of course you shold blog about you and whatver you are thinking. it seems odd o me that you think you have to mention it. but i like that you are taking control of what you want to write about.

one thing that does bug me about the redesign is your ‘you’ll laugh your ass off’ tag line. it’s very commercial, very branded. like pastaqueen inc’s new motto. one thing that’s attractive about sites like this is how uncommercial and real-people-y they are. yours was already teetering on being too commercial, with all the promos. now with the twitter competition and the tagline, well, i like it a bit less.

also, you didn’t just laugh your ass off. you laughed, and you made us laugh, but you also worked and fretted some, and thought about it and tried new things and read books and joined gyms and running clubs and ate things you never knew existed, which was sometimes hard but not always. some things worked and some things didn’t. it wasn’t quick or obvious or easy. if you could just laugh your ass off everyone with comedy central would be thin.

I have to agree with Caroline up there. You did not laugh your ass off, it was damn hard, especially in the early days. You DID keep your sense of humor, and there is a difference. As I read your archive (and I read them ALL) I was totally struck by the change in your voice as you evolved and removed your shell. You have emerged not only as a thinner person, but as a more outgoing person, and a more confident one, I would wager. Along the way, you became a truly wonderful writer, and that is why we all keep returning. I celebrate for you the end of the weight loss blog. On to better things…

I started reading this blog from a link somewhere (can’t remember where now!) but I certainly didn’t continue to read for weight loss only. If you hadn’t said something, I would have just enjoyed the increase in varied entries. But thanks for the info.

Stop being so scared of what people think! After all – this is your blog! Of course there are people who will not like it if you write about things that are not weight related but a lot of people (including myself) have been reading this blog for a long time and started to get much more interested in you – as a person – then if you can resist the donut or not. I have read a lot of weight loss blog because I lost a bunch of weight myself last year (and I am trying to lose more) but I have to say I gave up on all the ones that just posted what they ate and how much they lost everyday.

If you read somebodies blog you start feeling like that person is kind of your friend (even though it obviously is a very onesided friendship) and then of course you want to know more about that person.

So – stop apologizing – keep writing – write what you want – be who you want to be and the majority of people is now reading this blog to read about YOU.

Jennette Fulda tells stories to the Internet about her life as a smartass, writer, weight-loss inspiration, chronic headache sufferer, and overall nice person (who is silently judging you). She does this at JenFul now, but you can still have fun perusing her past here.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for keyboards ruined by coffee spit-takes or forehead wrinkles caused by deep thought.